(EP-202.2) Flower Aira #3
202 – Classroom Flower Aira #3
Aira’s small and faint laughter sounded like a thin thread swaying in the wind.
“Yes, serving the Queen. That in itself can be a form of reward. It’s a fitting answer, but not full…”
Aira yawned with her mouth wide open. She soon closed her eyes, falling into slumber.
“Aira-nim.”
“What is it?”
“I’m worried that you’ve been sleeping too much lately.”
“No need to worry. You can leave now.”
Seureureu-.
Aira’s eyes were closed shut. Soon, I could hear the sound of her steady breathing. It seemed that she had fallen asleep.
… Still, she could actually snooze that fast?
“Aira-nim.”
I called Aira’s name as a test. However, her breathing remained unchanged and even.
She was completely asleep. Here I was, struggling because of her. Dealing with difficult and awkward questions every day.
Annoying.
I raised my finger and lightly brushed Aira’s sole, which was peeking out from under the blanket.
Saekun, saekun.
But there was no reaction from Aira. She was slumbering so deeply that she didn’t notice that I was poking her. She was just like a sleeping beauty.
My finger passed over her foot, then brushed against her white, soft sole….
“━─.”
Aira let out a soft groan and quickly withdrew her foot under the blanket, resembling a snail retracting its feelers. Did it tickle?
Saekun, saekun.
However, she still didn’t wake up.
Impressive.
At this point, she wouldn’t even notice if someone carried her away…
「You have calmly judged the situation!
You have gained experience points through the talent 《Calm Thinking》.
All job experience +5」
Really? It had been a long time since Calm Thinking had occurred for Aira, so my heart was pounding.
Thus, I became curious about how much stimulation it would take before the sleeping Aira managed to notice.
The only visible part of her outside the blanket was her face, which looked quite fair and soft.
Extending my index finger, I lightly prodded her cheek—
She twitched.
I almost screamed in shock when Aira’s smooth forehead slightly wrinkled and she let out a, “Hmm-hmm.”
She didn’t wake up?
Saekun, saekun.
Indeed, Aira remained sound asleep. Seeing her like this, I could feel a sharp horn growing on my head.
If I did this well….
In that moment, as I gathered more courage to reach out further, I saw a faint smile form on Aira’s lips.
“Sister… Congratulations on your wedding….”
* * *
Serazade’s taunt worked. Aira was more willing to listen to me and go before the people.
━The Queen worshipping?
On Sunday, she participated in a service at the church, drawing people’s attention. On Monday, she even demonstrated her magic to people in the Introduction to Combatology lecture.
“If you combine the memorized telekinetic control magic and Rank 1 Light magic in this way, it becomes Prominence Plasma.”
Aira’s high magic skill was something to be admired.
━I don’t understand a thing…!
━But it’s amazing…!
It was natural for people to flock and cheer loudly for her dazzling skills. As the lecture was smoothly progressing, Elga crossed both arms and narrowed her brows.
“I’ve never seen her work so hard. It seems she really doesn’t want to lose to Serazade.”
“That’s right. If all goes well, she’ll be crowned the contest queen.”
I nodded in satisfaction.
“If you think about it….”
Then Elga’s words trailed off, as if something was bothering her.
“If you think about what?”
“Aira was always like that. She enjoyed being surrounded by people and getting attention. She was like a princess from a fairy tale, being everyone’s favorite….”
“Well, she is a real princess, so…”
Jirit-.
Elga shot me a sharp look. Thinking I might get smacked on the head, I quickly closed my mouth. With a sense of resignation, Elga let out a small sigh.
“Anyway, seeing her like that reminded me of those times. Yeah, she used to be like that. It’s kind of pitiful to think about how things ended up now…”
Well, they were still cousins after all.
Elga seemed to feel sorry for Aira in her own way. Having lost all her family members, Aira was indeed quite pitiful.
“So, do you know why Aira’s family all passed away?”
“Well, that’s… I’m not sure.”
I didn’t know either.
But there was someone who might. The figure of the black-robed Guide came to mind, which quickly disappeared.
Elga then spoke in a low voice.
“They said it was an unknown disease, but it’s likely some curse or magic flowing in the veins of the Tarantera bloodline. Somehow, Aira seems fine on her own….”
“A curse….”
Did Aira ever mention that her family’s deaths were due to a curse or grudge? People’s thoughts were often quite similar.
But then, why was Aira the only one seemingly unaffected by this curse?
If this were just a world in a novel, you could attribute it to the forced logic of ‘that’s how the story progresses.’ But the world wasn’t created so sloppily.
Certainly, there was a causation in everything. There was a good reason why things happened. Even if it was just a coincidence, there would still be a cause.
Obviously, Aira’s case had a reason….
━Aaht-?!
━Ah-!
At that moment, someone’s startled voice snapped me back to reality.
Wobble-.
In my dazed eyes, I saw Aira in the middle of everyone, with her black hair swaying in a direction it shouldn’t have.
And then, like a tree falling, it slowly touched the ground—.
It felt like my whole world was tilting, I was getting dizzy.
“Hey, Aira-! Everyone, get out of the way-! Hey, Theo, what are you doing━─.”
“Someone, go get the priests—.”
Edited by: faker
